Number 2

    The reason given as to why so many different Number 2's are employed in The Village, is so that the Prisoner-Number 6 is unable to form a relationship with his interrogator. And yet Number 6 does enjoy a rapport with Number 2 during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ and in ‘Once Upon A Time’ Number 2 states that he’s beginning to like Number 6. So why bring back a failed Number 2 in order to have a second bite of the apple? Perhaps because the failure of the plan used in ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ could not be completely laid at the feet of Number 2, apparently he had said they were using the wrong approach. But never mind, Nadia said he’d done his best, that she would stress that in her report. So is that why this Number 2 was brought back to The Village, because before, they were using the wrong approach, and that this time he could use the more direct approach of Degree Absolute? Perhaps the rapport between 6 and this 2 should have been considered, it might have been wiser to have brought someone else to The Village in order to go “one to one” with Number 6, someone who didn’t know him. This wasn’t the first time that Number 2 saw a second term in office, in between were ‘A B and C’ and ‘The General.’
    As with his predecessor this Number 2 was given a task involving Number 6, which just as before ended in failure. So why then bring back a failed Number 2 for a second term in office? Perhaps it was a question of personnel. Perhaps it was because being involved with the educational experiment of Speedlearn Number 2 wouldn’t be involved with Number 6. However they had not accounted for Number 6 involving himself! But if we look at it the other way around, the fact that in the opening sequence of ‘the General’ Number 2 announces himself as the new Number 2, and in ‘A B And C’ he’s Number 2 suggests that ‘The General’ should be screened before ‘A B And C,’ the situation is turned on its head. The fact that ‘The General’ is a complete and utter disaster for Number 2, with the deaths of the Professor and Number 12, together with the destruction of the General, this Number 2 is still either retained, or brought back to The Village in order to deal with Number 6. Perhaps the thinking behind that, is that Number 2 couldn’t do worse dealing with Number 6!
   Another Number 2, previously of ‘The Girl Who Was Death,’ is brought back in the guise of the President, a High Court Judge, in order to oversee the trials of ‘Fall Out,’ The Village having reached a democratic crisis! We have no idea how long Number 2 spent setting Number 6 up as a child minder, or how many tales he told those three children in order to try and get Number 6 to drop his guard with children. But it was worth a try, as anything is worth a try once, not that I think Number 2 actually believed that it would work. Or at least that’s the impression I get “Might drop his guard with children,” its how he says it that gives me the impression that it wasn’t his idea, and perhaps thought it a rather lame idea. So another failed Number 2 is brought back to The Village. And what happened? The encounter between Number 6 and Number 1 went unsupervised. A violent revolution, the unscheduled launching of the rocket, the loss of Number 1, the escape of Number 6, together with the complete evacuation of The Village. Things couldn’t have turned out worse for this Number 2, compounding the fact that they shouldn’t have strayed from the original idea of having using different Number 2’s. But even if they hadn’t, would anyone else have faired any better given the circumstances? For example, had the new Number 2 of ‘Free For All’ been carried over into ‘The Schizoid Man’ would she have handled the situation any differently? Of course it is clearly impossible to say, but it’s quite possible that given the same circumstances of ‘The Schizoid Man,’ the result would have been the same no matter who was Number 2.
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